A BUILDING SOCIETY has angered a widower by sending a letter to his home addressed to his late wife and marked with the word ?deceased?.

The letter is addressed to ?Mrs Malin (deceased)? - the late wife of 76-year-old Edgar Malin.

It offers Mrs Malin a credit card and incredibly starts: ?At Yorkshire Building Society we?ve been listening to what you want??.

Mr Malin says he?s received about six unsolicited letters in the last year from other banks and building societies trying to sell credit cards or personal finance to Gwendoline Malin, who died at the age of 70 last December.

The Yorkshire Building Society has now apologised to Mr Malin and blamed the insensitive letter on a computer blunder.

Mr Malin, who runs his own business, Coventry Industrial Services in Alderman?s Green, Coventry, today urged all banks and building societies to sort out their databases.

The letter which upset Mr Malin so much arrived last week at his home in Overstone Road, Withybrook, near Coventry. It is marked with the slogan ?working together?.

Mr Malin says the latest letter, from the Yorkshire, is by far the worst example but says other building societies and a number of banks have also sent similar letters.

He said: ?When I telephoned one of them they were full of apology but the hurt has already been done. I?ve had five or six of these letters from banks and building societies asking if she would like to swap accounts. It?s done by computer but surely someone should check them.?

David Holmes, corporate services manager for Yorkshire Building Society, said: ?When something like this happens we can only hold our hands up and say we?re sorry and we?ll try to put it right. The name went on the system looking like a hyphenated name - the data should have been on a separate line.

?Our IT people are sifting through all the data to try to make sure this doesn?t happen again.?